The story of a laugh
by Alchemy student
Summary: Luffy is one born without fear, but why? Well, the story happened one Halloween night and with the company of his big brother.


**(Inspired by Travis Willinham's ghost tour and his scaredy cat ways ;) )**

* * *

Luffy was many things, stupid to all normal things (he saved the important bits for friends, food, and dreams), strong, a pirate, loyal to his crew, and most of all, fearless. Oh sure, he was scared of losing his nakama and failing them. Not being strong enough was another. But when it came to the normal things one would be scared of like a talking skeleton or a zombie that would eat your brains? He would ask the skeleton if he crapped or punch the latter.

This always confuse the straw hats. Even the bravest members of the team had odd little fears inspite of them being one of the best of the worst generation and braving the new world. Sanji, inspite of him being third strongest of the team, was scared of bugs. Zorro was unusually afraid of small spaces, and stoic Robin had an unusual fear of octopus.

So why was it that Luffy seemed to always laugh at skeletons and monsters and such?

Whenever the crew asked, Luffy would smile wide and say, "Shishishi, I'm just to excited to care!"

However, this was a half truth. There was an event in his life that he always remembered that made him fearless. Someone inspired him to be fearless and if he told them...

HE would be pretty sure that he would find a way to kill him from whever he is right now.

* * *

It was Halloween in Windmill villiage, a celebration of the end of the harvest and the time to run from the spooks that dared to enter our world at the time. As such, it was also time for Makino to run her annual haunted house down at her bar. Everyone in the villiage was invited to bring their children or to come alone to celebrate and have a good time. Most of the children excited, all except for two.

"This, is going to be the lamest thing you ever convinced me to go to Luffy," Ace said, growling as he looked down at his brother who was skipping with him.

"But aff, Mafino saf-" Luffy tried to say, having four whole candied apples, three peanut cups, two licorace whips, and an entire candy bar in his mouth.

Angerily, Ace knocked him on the head, "And Swallow will ya?"

Luffy did as his brother demanded and continued, reaching into his pocket for his next piece of candy or another apple, "Makino said that this is really scary and a lot of fun! I always wanted to go but Gramps never took me here! But now you are here I can go! AND I REALLY WANT TO!"

Ace groaned and rolled his eyes. His brother knew how toget under his skin and make him do what he wanted. The downsides of having a little brother he supposed. Looking down at the pleading look he was being given, he said, "All right, all right. Let's go, check it out, and then leave when you see how LAME it is."

Thirty minutes later and the two stood in front of the haunted house in the dead of night. Ace looked at the haunted bar and nodded, "S-see, how lame it all looks? It's just the bar with cobwebs and fake little bats inside. Nothing major." he let out a groan as he said, " stole those two tickets for you for nothing."

"Ace? Are you ok? Your knees are shaking," Luffy asked, watching the wobble that Ace had in his legs.

"I'm fine, just cold is all!" Ace siad, grabbing his little brother by the arm and pulled him in, "Now let's just go in!"

Luffy nodded a little nervously, unsure if he should go for a moment. However, the moment he stepped into the dark and forboding bar, he found himself having fun. HE quickly jumped and ran when he was supposed to, or duck when a man playfully swiped a fake sychte at him. He also stepped back when a skeleton popped out, laughing at him and dripping blood. This made Luffy laugh back, mimicking the ghostly laugh.

IT didn't take him long to notice that his hand was missing something. Looking to his right, he noticed that his big brother was missing. Looking around curious, he took a few steps back to a black curtain and looked around. Taking a few more steps, he saw a little boy curled up and crying. Tapping his shoulder, he heard, "Go away!"

"Ace?" asked Luffy, watching as his big brother looked at him, tears in his eyes. "Are you-"

"Don't say it! I'm not scared! I'm NOT!" screamed Ace as he looked away in tears.

Luffy looked at him curious and said, "You are scared! You are you are!"

Ace frowned as grabbed his lips, closing them tightly together, "Ok, fine, I'm scared. I have this thing about ghost and things, ok? Don't make a scene!"

"But, why? It's kind of silly to be scared of all of this, right?" Luffy said. "They're all just in a bunch of costumes looking like badly injured people!"

"Zombies, Luff," Ace said, "And why aren't you scared?"

"Because they all look so silly, and it's kind of funny to hear them scream. I mean, I was a little scared, but now I'm not," Luffy said, smiling wide. "Especially hearing their silly laugh, shishishi."

"It's gegege, dummy," Ace said.

"Still," Luffy said, but then he took his older brother's hand and smiled, "But, I'll tell you what. I'll hold your hand and keep you safe from the monsters. And if you miss me, listen for my laugh."

Ace sighed, "Saved by my brother, how humilating."

* * *

Luffy leaned back, looking at the blue sky as the ship sailed lazily on by. The birds squaking and talking over head. All the while, thinking to himself the reason why he was fearless and never scared, "_If my fearless big brother can be scared of something as silly as men in ghost make up? Then I guess that means there's really nothing to be scared of at all." _ he then began to laugh again and sing to himself.

_When I was a little kiddy and the sun went down_

_The creeps and the shadows made my brother frown_

_But then I told him that wasn't the way _

_To deal with fears at all_

_I said, ACE you got to learn to stand up tall_

_You got to learn to face your fears_

_Just laugh and make them dissappear_

_Sooooo_

_Giggle at the ghostly_

"Shishishi," Luffy laughed to himself as a pair of ghostly arms hugged him from behind


End file.
